Fate: Elder Tales
by Htler28
Summary: Old and retired, Shirou Emiya decides to find a hobby at his family's advice. So he turned back to play Elder Tales in which is also the time when the Twelfth expansion pack was released. How was he supposed to know that the game would become real? (DISCONTINUED due to bad writing.)
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Fate/stay night and Log Horizon belongs to Type-Moon and Mamare Touno respectively. This is a fan work so it's free. I made this for fun, constructive criticism is good, constructive flames will be considered before ignoring. So please be gentle since this is my first fanfic I've put on the internet and English is not my main language.**

 **Summary:**

 **Old and retired, Shirou Emiya decides to find a hobby at his family's advice. So he turned back to play Elder Tales in which also the time when the Twelfth expansion pack was released. How was he supposed to know that the game would become real?**

Prologue

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

"Naotsugu pay attention to the right!" he shouted to the tank.

"Right, leave it to me!" replied Naotsugu to Shiroe's warning with a yell, raised his silver shield and shielded himself from the Briar Weasels attack.

"Emiya covering fire on Naotsugu!" he yelled to Emiya.

"Okay, covering fire coming up!" Emiya bit back while calmly firing his bow from a tree and was followed by explosions.

' _Seriously where did he get explosive arrows, there's no such item back in the game._ ' He thought with a bit of bewilderment.

"My Lord!" shouts Akatsuki

With one blow, Akatsuki quickly restrained the green twisted ivy reaching out to him from the left, and right after that, she lowered her body and positioned herself to protect him.

This place was the Herbery of Small Stone. It was a small zone but as it held ancient entertainment facilities, which made it different from the ruins surrounding it. But there are great variations in the terrain, thus making combat a little difficult.

"Then again, isn't this a little too many?" he joked after observing the number of enemies.

"Their numbers increase whenever Naotsugu cracks a dirty joke." Akatsuki replied.

"Well since you tempted Fate itself." supplied Emiya with a nod which prompted a smile on the girl's lips.

"So it's my fault?" Naotsugu retorted with a frown on his lips.

Without replying to Naotusugu's retort, he casts a bluish-white magic arrow and fires it at the Briar Weasels. Mind Bolt was a basic attack magic of Enchanters, an arrow of mental energy that struck a single enemy.

While he was looking at the rodent-like creature that was roughly a meter in height as it shrieked and jumped about, an icon appeared in his mind.

The said icon had turned pale to represent its cooldown time, and it was slowly recovering like an hourglass. Until the icon regained its lustre, he can't cast the spell again. However he still has other skills to use.

"Rush them! Akatsuki, attack their left flank!" He ordered. "Emiya restrain the right flank!"

"Roger that!" Akatsuki responded while rushing to the location.

"Copy that!" Emiya promptly replied.

"Leave it to me!" Naotsugu also replied

Furthermore, even if all of his skils were unusable, Shiroe currently had three comrades to rely on.

"Haa, let's do it! Shield Smash!" Naotsugu shouted to no one in particular.

The silver-armored warrior, who quickly advanced down the moss-covered path and swept his shield sideways, mowing enemies down, was Naotsugu. He was a tall guy with short hair and jovial-looking eyes and he was Shiroe's friend from the old days.

His class was Guardian. Among the 3 warrior classes that could single-handedly draw in and tank enemies' assault, Guardians boasted the greatest defensive abilities and in Elder Tales, were nicknamed "Unbreakable Shield".

"… Too slow!" Akatsuki also shouted.

A young girl, who gave one the impression of a swallow, made a quick dash into the gap that appeared from Naotsugu's assault. A strange creature that looked like a burst rugby ball with glass-like fangs growing from it attacked but she cut it down with the short sword she wielded as she passed it.

This petite girl with her black hair fluttering in the wind was Akatsuki. She called Shiroe "My lord" without hesitation and was also Shiroe's friend.

Her class was Assassin. It was a resourceful class that wielded one-hit skills. It boasted of having the highest physical attack among the 12 classes of Elder Tales.

"What's with the kid's these days? Always shouting at the top of their lungs. Oh well Spark shot." Emiya groaned while casting a bluish-white electric spark to one of his non-explosive arrows. Spark Shot is one of the advanced skills of Ranged Assassins, an arrow covered with electric shocks that splits when it hits the target while giving minor damage to the surrounding enemies.

The blue-coated archer which gives one the impression of being calm and firing arrows in a steady rate was Emiya. He was a tall guy with white hair and tanned skin with cold calculating eyes and was also one of Shiroe's friends from the old days.

His class was Assassin like Akatsuki. But unlike Akatsuki who is wielding a short sword, he is using a black long bow with two chinese dao swords currently sheathed behind his waist. He is actually a good guy when out of combat but his expression always become emotionless when in combat.

Though he viewed the movements of his friends in fascination, he hurriedly advanced forward.

His class was Enchanter.

Among the three magic attack classes, it was a 100% support class type specializing in support and battle status magic. As was common for magic attack classes, the Enchanter's defense wasn't something to rely on. Leaving out Naotsugu's full-plated armor, it couldn't even equip the leather armor of Adventurer's like the set Akatsuki and Emiya was wearing.

Under the huge white gown-looking mantle of his, there was nothing more than an ordinary tunic shirt and a pair of trousers.

Shiroe, who was the rear support without defensive abilities, could not be left alone on the battlefield; he needed to take the opponent's area-of-effect magic into account while keeping in mind that being overly close to the front lines could be dangerous. So the best method was to be wary of ambushes from the rear while maintaining a set distance from Naotsugu, Akatsuki and Emiya.

Needless to say, the Herbery of Small Stone was not a field-zone of high difficulty.

The monsters that could appear in this zone were Triffids , Briar Weasels, and Venom Moths; all around Level 50.

All of them were Level 90 Adventurers.

In the World of MMORPG, Elder Tales, they were the highest class of power. Even if Shirou's defense was low, he wouldn't receive much damage with that much of a level gap.

Furthermore, although Naotsugu was up against a large number of opponents, even if it were just ten or twenty Triffids, they were opponents of a level where they could be taken care of single-handedly by any of the three party members.

' _Even so, the current situation….._ ' he mused.

Till now, the four of them had carefree looks on their faces, chatting and bickering, but Naotsugu, and Akatsuki both had serious expressions right now. Even Emiya's warm eyes turned cold.

Battles were terrifying.

Even if one had a strong body or a sound mind, even if one cast magic or used a sword skill, when facing monsters, fear still lingered. ' _Although there is no trace of fear in Emiya's face._ ' He pondered after looking at everyone's faces.

Both feet o the ground, hands firmly gripping his staff, they were all parts of his body. The wind that blew past his cheeks, the piercing howls of monsters, the adrenaline that was pumping through his blood, they were all that Shiroe experiencing at the moment.

Tooth and claw that suddenly appeared in front of their faces, flames or acidic attacks assaulted them. Needing to dodge or intercept these attacks at the front-lines was a lot harder than the three of them thought apart from Emiya, who told them that it is like dodging bullets aimed to your body, probably speaking from experience. In order to overcome to conquer this handicap, they had no choice but to accumulate combat experience, this was the conclusion all of them had come up.

"Watch your right!" He once again shouted to Naotsugu.

"I got it!" Naotsugu promptle replied.

Despite a serious look on his face, Naotsugu still swiftly looked in the direction that Shiroe had warned him from, swinging the longsword in his right hand. Although it wasn't a critical hit, it was sufficient to restrict the movement of the Briar Weasel.

The weasel extended its green briar, glaring with its crimson eyes as it chirped two or three times, pulling back by curling its body into a ball.

The attack just now had proven their suspicions.

They were all Level 90 Adventurers, originally if they met these monsters that were around Level 48, it would be impossible for a situation where there would be an "Attack Failure".

Despite being Level 90 Adventurers, they were still unable to wield their skills to the best of their abilities yet.

"Nightmare Sphere!" He chanted.

That was why they had to carry out their roles the best they could. He who had arrived at this conclusion executed an area of effect skill. Nightmare Sphere was an area of effect attack magic that Enchanters possessed.

Even though it is an offensive skill, the damage that it deals is very little.

The Enchanter Class was not versed in offensive magic from the start. Compared to other classes of the same level, the attack magic that Enchanters could dish out by themselves was very weak; this was a fact to everyone. The skill he used traced out an unreliable arc, landing right in the middle of the weasels and the moving plants and violently exploded; it seemed that it did not cause much damage to the opponents; this was the best proof that Enchanters were weak.

Even though they were monsters who had levels half of his, he was unable to defeat them in one strike, only able to use attacks of such low damage, this was the trait of the Enchanters as such it was an unpopular class in Elder Tales.

As players, they were ruthless when playing games. In a world where language and communication was restricted, numbers were something that was absolute. Despite being in a game universe and precisely because it was a game universe, it caused this world to be a caste society that was even more heartless and strict than the real world.

The highly popular classes and the outcast classes had a very large evaluation gap.

However, even though it wasn't popular to normal players, Shiroe was not even unhappy with his class. It would be great if he had some special ability that he could use, despite lacking in that, he was still able to find a way to enjoy playing this class. This was his playing style. Furthermore he liked the Enchanter class. Including this troublesome trait, its weak abilities as well as its hidden versatility, he was interested in all of them. The class that was 'useless when left alone', it was completely different from Shiroe's own shortcomings; Shiroe liked that particular point very much.

The Nightmare Sphere that he cast released a colorless mental wave in its area of effect. The multiple enemies caught in its area were all affected by the wave, they seemed to have suffered grave mental trauma, resulting in a huge drop in movement speed. It was the status ailment of movement speed reduction. The Nightmare Sphere was a skill that had short effect duration but it was capable of inflicting a crippling effect on its target.

"Yeah! I can fight better like this!" Naotsugu boasted in excitement.

"Thank you, my lord." Akatsuki also cried out in excitement.

Emiya just nodded to me in acknowledgement. He was shouldering his bow and unsheathing his twin swords to engage the enemies in close combat.

The monsters that there group were currently embroiled with were Triffids and Briar Weasels, although they looked menacing and hideous, the height of the two monsters were only round a meter.

"Alright! I got one!" Naotsugu once again boasted after killing a monster.

"Same here!" Akatsuki cried out after killing one.

"Not bad, Shrimp!" Naotsugu shouted to the small assassin.

"Don't call me a shrimp, Idiot Naotsugu!" Akatsuki replied to Naotsugu's taunt.

"Hmm, you got one each while I got two per each of your kill!" Emiya mocked to the two while methodically killing the other enemies with his twin swords.

"Shut up you Snarky Bastard!" Naotsugu and Akatsuki shouted in unison to the taunt.

The three teammates weren't people who would only engage in negative thinking.

Naotsugu's positive thinking was exceptional; although Akatsuki was usually silent, she was not behind Naotsugu in that field of thinking as well; and Emiya in his combat mode was just following the flow, albeit in snarky and sarcasm dripped words that sometimes make the two to do better.

As long as an opportunity was provided and ample support was given, they would be able to repeatedly defeat monster. Shiroe only needed rear support for the three, if Naotsugu and Akatsuki had monsters left over that they had missed, he would only need to use magic to restrain them as well as provide a final blow since Emiya never left anything his attacks.

Lowering the movement speed of the opponent was something that would turn the tables to one's advantage. Since that point was understood, would know what he should do, that would mean using Nightmare Sphere or Astral Bind related restraining type magic's to restrict the enemies, completely taking the role of supporting the front lines.

Thinking closely, it was not that big of a deal at all, it was a basic battle stategy that had repeated countless times.

' _At the very least, we can't continue struggling with these low-level opponents; I still haven't tested a new formation yet._ ' He pondered over such thoughts.

"Take that!" Naotsugu yelled.

"Haa!" Akatsuki also cried.

Emiya was just silent as usual in killing the monsters.

The three of them were seasoned players with tons of experience. As long as there was an opportunity, they would become partners that focused on teamwork who got along remarkably well. His preconceived doubts vanished.

"It's over like that?" Naotsugu questioned to nobody while he swung his one-handed sword in a large arc, wiping the blood of his sword before returning it to its sheath.

"No not yet." Emiya replied to Naotsugu's question while throwing his twin falchions near Naotsugu's head and hit two Briar Weasels thus killing them. "But now it is over." He said in finality and promptly retrieved his swords.

Coming out of his musings, the battle was already over.

Shiroe nodded his head in support of Emiya's comment, dispelling the magic that he had been readying.

"Hey, Emiya are you trying to kill me?" Naotsugu questioned to the white-haired man.

"We defeated a lot of monsters already." Emiya stated completely ignoring Naotsugu's question while looking at the surroundings.

"There seems to be no more indications of any enemies in the surroundings, maybe it'd be best to stay alert for a while. I'm sorry, but can you three help collect the loot?" Shiroe called out while beginning to observe the surroundings.

The warning indication in his mind changed from red to calming blue, indicating that battle mode had been deactivated.

Naotsugu, Emiya, and Akatsuki started collecting the loot that the monsters dropped after being felled and bursting into bubbles without leaving a single carcass.

It was fortunate that the moon was shining brightly high in the sky.

'Really now, in the end the one that keeps thinking negative thoughts is me.' Shiroe thought releasing a long sigh.

"Hey Emiya, where did you get those explosive arrows you used?" Shiroe asked to the white-haired man. "There's no such thing as an explosive arrow in the game or in the real life."

"Why are asking by the way?" Emiya replied to his query.

"Hmm, I'm just curious. And I just want to know if you can procure them in large numbers." He answered.

"Well truthfully I created it by scribbling some runes in the arrowhead." Emiya replied to his question. "If you are inquiring on where I got those runes and what are they, then my answer is it's a secret. You will know if the time is right."

"Ah ok, do you perhaps have some skills in sword fighting in the real life?" He once again queried to the white-haired man.

"Yeah Shiroe's right, do you have skills in swords?" Naotsugu cut in their conversation.

"Hmm, what makes you two say that?" Emiya replied to the two.

"Well since we didn't see you cast any skill when you are using your swords and it looks like too methodical and too fluid to be a beginner's skill." Shiroe replied with Naotsugu nodding his head in approval to his reply.

"Hmm, the truth is that I do have some skills that may be considered by some people to be at a swordmaster level and you have seen today is my personal sword fighting style that I created myself." Emiya replied without hint of a lie. ' _My style though was copied from my alternate future self._ ' Emiya thought dryly unknown to the people around him.

He and Naotsugu nodded after hearing Emiya's answer.

Looking down, it was the edge of his white cloak, made from tough cloak that was suitable for outdoor activities, long pants that seemed to be of high quality. If he remembered correctly, the shoes that he was currently wearing were made from Thunder Elk's leather, boots that were soft and comfy.

As what he was carrying, it was a staff.

Staff of the Wise Owl- it was a rare item that was able to raise his magical power and casting speed, it was Shiroe's treasure. Around two meters long, it was longer than him.

His appearance gave him a mysterious air. He personally thought that such a design looked great, the word 'great' was not the feeling that he'd use in the real world, but the feeling that one would feel inside the virtual world.

-(3rd person POV)-

' _After that day when the incident coined as the Apocalypse happened, everything around them had totally changed.'_ Both Shiroe and Emiya thought.

It wasn't as grandiose or as sweet as heroic epics, but full of sarcasm, muddled, stress-laden and tough another "Reality".

The "Reality" mentioned, were the monsters that they had just fought against; it was the reason why Shiroe was paying attention to any movement around him, it was the ruins that was shrouded in greenery, it was the teammates who wielded their weapons and skinned their prey.

A cold wind blew through the forest, bringing a chill with it.

As well as leaving behind the fear of battle under his skin.

All of this was currently the "Reality" that they were living in.

Shiroe and his friends seemed to have been confined in the world that was supposed to be just a game, Elder Tales. After the Apocalypse happened, everything changed.

' _However, if we can do battles like this we can earn money as long as we fight. We have a bed waiting for us when we go back. Furthermore, since I can meet Naotsugu, Akatsuki, and Emiya because of these in many different levels, this can said to be the most fortunate turn of events.'_ Shiroe repeatedly sighed, forcibly changing his gloomy thinking into something more positive.

'Rin and Sakura aren't here to help me but I still have some friends to rely on.' Emiya thought while looking at his newly found friends. 'I, Shirou Emiya can only hope for the best in this world we found ourselves in.'

The scene of the day when the Apocalypse happened flashed in both of their heads, the scene of countless players holing up in Akiba filled with despair. Shiroe did not wish to be like them as they fell into a swamp of despair while Emiya thought of helping them crossed his mind, before he discarded the thought reasoning to his altruistic mind that it is those people's way of coping to this new world.

Shiroe and Emiya observed their surroundings as they both recounted the chain of events that happened on the day the Apocalypse occurred.

Shirou's Character:

Emiya

Race/ Human

Assassin, Lv. 90

Author's Note

This Shirou Emiya came from the UBW route. This idea first popped in my head over two months ago and then I promptly searched for a Fate/stay night X Log Horizon. To my complete disappointment there was just 1 fic in which the Hakuno was the MC. So then I thought why not make it a reality than just a mere idea since they are both compatible. Then I started writing this fic while living my life to the fullest. So please be gentle in your criticism.


	2. Chapter 1: Apocalypse

**Disclaimer: Fate/stay night and Log Horizon belongs to Type-Moon and Mamare Touno respectively.**

 **Chapter 1: The Apocalypse**

 **-(Flashback)-**

 **-(Shirou Emiya's POV)-**

Fuyuki City, Emiya Estate, May 3, 2070

Shirou Emiya was in his room facing the laptop, waiting for the update to the game Elder Tales to finish. He was currently in his home, the Emiya Mansion. To an ordinary human it looks like your average mansion of an ordinary family albeit a wealthy one but to a magus this is the home of the infamous Magus Killer. It is still the Japanese house he inherited from Kiritsugu minus the underground floor that is accessible by a door in the shed which works as an emergency bunker if things go bad and the upgraded bounded field that surround it.

He, his daughter Chloe, and his three granddaughters live here while his other daughter Aoi Emiya and his only son Kiritsugu Emiya is in the Clock Tower studying. He is currently 73, 56 years after Holy Grail War that changed his life, and still looked like in his thirties due to him possessing Avalon in his body. He was quite tired from everything that has happened in his life. Like a blade that had been dragged along the side of the road, his edge had become dull and dusty. The thought of seeing his wife again was his only wish. It had been 20 years ever since he had last seen Rin's face.

He already accomplished many things in his life. The Emiya family had been elevated to the status of noble in the Clock Tower, something he could never thought of happening. Lorelei and he became friends after treating her to some of his delicious food.

He also became the godfather of Waver Velvet's son, their experiences with the Holy Grail War and consequently defeating being the reason the two men were able to bond. After a few research papers about structural analysis, reinforcement, and projection, he was invited to become invited to become a lecturer at Clock Tower which is something the Archibald family had roared and raged for a few months. The Einzberns even sent assassins after him, but when you have already faced Heroic Spirits in a battle royale, a few assassins doesn't look scary anymore.

After the Grail was destroyed, he and Rin had gone to the Clock Tower to study. Rin studied under Zelretch. He studied runecraft as a means to supplement his magecraft in which most of his mystic codes were swords.

He had married Rin in secret a few years after that. Then he established a restaurant with his friend Sakura helping him in managing it while also being an Enforcer to the Association. After his third child was born, he formally retired from being an Enforcer and focused on taking care of the restaurant and the kids. The Emiya estate in Japan became their house while the Tohsaka Mansion in which his wife inherited became a workshop. He felt happy back then, and forgetting about the hill he had seen at the end of Archer's life.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. His friend Sakura passed away at the age of 52 due to cancer. Turns out the cancer that killed Sakura were hereditary and Rin followed her sister five years later. He now stayed at his house and was now taking care for his three grandchildren: Miyu, Maiya, and Kuro Emiya who was currently studying in Homurahara Elementary.

Then he slowly filled out his last will if an accident happened to him. He let his daughter Chloe takeover his restaurant that was now a five-star restaurant due to her inheriting his love for cooking and her mother's thriftiness.

He turned his attention back to his laptop, showing that it is still updating the game Elder Tales. Why was he playing a computer game? Well, it's because Waver's son recommended it to me since he found out that I got a lot of free time in hands. My kids told me to find a new hobby that is less taxing to the physical body and they approved. So I bought a laptop and played the game. He had been pretty good at the game even managing to be part of the group, The Debauchery Tea Party but stopped playing the game a year ago due to him finishing his will.

And today, he found the time to start playing again. He then noticed the small bar at the bottom of the screen filing up. Which means the update is about to finish. In which changes to the game, new quests, and new characters are implemented. Who would have thought that his life and many others would drastically change due to the update?

*Update Complete*

Everything was black. No sound, no smell, nothing. Then as sudden as everything turned black he was bombarded with all kinds of colors, smell and sounds. He closed his eyes to protect himself from the sudden influx of information and only after a few seconds he reopened his eyes.

What he saw wasn't what he expected. He expected to be shaken awake by his daughter or one of his granddaughters that are currently living with him in Fuyuki City after falling asleep. Instead he found himself sitting on a branch in a tree approximately 3 meters off the ground surrounded by a ruined city. He jumped off the tree and looked at his surroundings.

Whatever happened, it happened a long time ago, the buildings that once were in pristine condition looked like they were at the verge of collapse, plants and small critters now inhabited them like their original owners before them.

"What is going on here?" He questioned to no one while noticing something felt off about his clothes.

He raised his arms and noticed that he was wearing a pair of fingerless gloves. He looked at his body and found that instead of his regular clothes, which consists a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of trousers, he was wearing white leather armour and a blue colored mantle with holy symbols that ironically looked like my real life combat armour minus the colors.

His shoes had changed into leather shoes and the overall looked eerily familiar. This combined with the now familiar looking environment there was no doubt about it.

He had been changed into his Elder Tales character and he surely knows the one to be blamed.

"ZELRETCH!" he shouted prompting some birds in the tree to fly away.

The gears in his mind slowly rebooted and were slowly turning. Is this Zelretch's last prank before he dies from old age? No, judging from the chaos that is transpiring a few streets' away he wasn't the only caught in this.

' _I, Shirou Emiya, the father of three children and grandfather to three kids, who was an Enforcer to the Association while also studying runecraft in the Clocktower for ten years, and the owner of a 5-star restaurant in Fuyuki City finds himself in a world in which he played for 8 years. Great.'_ He mentally concluded while groaning to himself. _'Definitely smells like one of Zelretch's pranks.'_

He looked over the rest of his things. His Phantasmal-class longbow: Daedalus Bow, a dark metallic longbow which is taller than himself standing 2 meters in length, that improves agility, and can launch arrows and swords that are not of Phantasmal-class. His Phantasmal-class swords: Kanshou and Bakuya, two identical Chinese dao swords that ironically looked like his real life favourite swords, that has an increased damaged against humanoid/human enemies and legends say that they always reunite with each other if separated, although how true the legends in this world is still up to debate. And when he opened Dazaneg's magic bag he found his character's entire inventory inside.

After looking through all the contents of his bag, he immediately looked for a secluded place to practice his magecraft.

"Trace on." He chanted immediately all his magic circuits came to life pumping prana to his circuits. And to his surprise, he found that there were additional circuits in his body.

' _Reinforcement check.'_ He thought after casting reinforcement to his body and carelessly punched a tree immediately pulverizing said tree. _'Okay, note to self don't reinforce the body without factoring this body's stats.'_

' _Okay, time to check my tracing.'_ He thought while following the seven steps.

' _Judging the concept of creation'_

A blueprint of twin swords sprung to his mind.

' _Hypothesizing the basic structure'_

They were meant for the sake of crafting.

' _Duplicating the composition material'_

They were made from the best mundane steel and a human sacrifice.

' _Imitating the skill of its making'_

They were forged in grief by Gan Jiang due to his wife's sacrifice.

' _Sympathizing with the experience of its growth'_

There forms were now partially formed.

' _Reproducing the accumulated years'_

They were passed from one warrior to another neither desiring to be famous nor the faith to accomplish great deeds.

' _Excelling every manufacturing process'_

The swords are now fully formed. Kanshou and Bakuya beautiful to another's eye but to him it is the reflection of himself, a sword with no pride.

He immediately examined the traced swords and found out that the world isn't rejecting their existence. He hypothesized that the swords may last for hours or days without him supplying any prana. Then he compared the game's Kanshou and Bakuya to the Kanshou and Bakuya of his world using Structural Grasp. They were almost identical to each other except for the spells of warding all over his swords' blades.

After comparing the two pairs of swords, he immediately put his traced Kanshou and Bakuya to his magic bag to know how long his traced weapon will disappear, and sheathed this world's Kanshou and Bakuya so as not to arouse suspicion of having two pairs of almost identical Phantasm-class sword.

' _Okay, Tracing check and now to test runecraft.'_ He thought. While thinking of how to test his runecraft, a pop-up window suddenly appeared in his field of vision combined with the sound of a phone ringing.

"What!" He shouted and jumped back in surprise.

-Shiroe wants to voice chat. Do you accept?-

He pressed the accept button.

"Umm, Hello?" He greeted.

"Ah, Emiya. I'm glad you picked up." The voice on the other end of the 'line' sounded relieved.

Yep. That's right. If everyone was stuck inside this game/new world then he wasn't Shirou Emiya, The Wrought-Iron Hero. Here he was Emiya, a level 90 Assassin and Blacksmith. This was going to be something he had to get used to in the future.

"Shiroe, what's going on?" He asked. _'Man, its weird calling someone that has a name that sounded like yours.'_ He thought and continued speaking. "How are you talking to me?"

"I'm not sure, it seems like we're in Akiba. But how or why, I don't know." Shiroe confessed. "As to how I'm talking to you, it looks like the menus still work. To open them, just think about them and just tap right in front of you."

He did as Shiroe instructed. Sure enough, as soon as he did a whole mess of windows popped up. Items, skills, party, character info, friends list, settings and a whole lot more. He looked over them and noticed the log out button. He pressed it only to be answered with a rejecting tone and a red x.

' _Haa, looks like things aren't going to be easy.'_ He thought dejectedly. _'I mean my life was never that easy to begin with.'_

After fooling around with the menu for a few seconds he returned his attention to the voice chat.

"Alright, what's the plan, Mr. Strategist?" He inquired to his chat mate.

"I'm meeting up with Naotsugu near the Silverleaf tree." Shiroe answered.

"Naotsugu? Didn't he quit two years ago?" he once again inquired.

"He had some things to sort out in real life but got back in the game today. And didn't you quit the game a year ago?" Shiroe shot back.

"Hehe, you got me there. Well you see I also had some things to be sorted out in the real world a year ago and it is now finished. So I decided to get back." He answered. 'Lo and Behold what my E-rank luck can do.' He thought sarcastically.

"Talk about bad luck." Shiroe answered.

"Yeah. To get back to the game just to get sucked into the game itself." He answered in approval to Shiroe's words of wisdom.

"So.." Shiroe started. "Are you in Akiba?"

He looked at the mini-map on his status window. "Hmm… Looks like I'm near Cathedral. Give me five minutes to get to the Tree."

"Right, I'll see you there." Shiroe replied.

-Call Ended-

"Hmm, might as well listen to what the kid may say. Okay, time to test my runecraft." He said to himself after dismissing the pop-up while looking for an object to use for his runecraft. After a few seconds, he found a twig near the tree he pulverized. He scribbled a tracking rune and said: "Silverleaf Tree". The Runed twig magically lifted itself from his hands and floated to the Silverleaf Tree. He then followed the twig to the destination.

Looking around him he saw other players. No, adventurers he mentally corrected, in various states. Most were sulking and depressed, he couldn't blame them really. He wanted to help them but he restrained himself from doing so since it may lead them further into despair, he had already seen it in some people in wars and conflict. Considering that they might be stuck here, it was only human to despair in a situation like this. But him he couldn't be like them for he wasn't a normal human to begin with and this isn't the first time that he found himself stuck in another reality all because of a certain vampire/troll. Sitting around and sulking all day long isn't him for the man named Shirou Emiya can't stop from being productive even for a day, and even if the devs were in progress of fixing this it would just be a waste of time. So let them cope with it in their own pace, the sooner the better. He wondered what had happened to his body. Was he lying in bed or did his body merge with his game character and was transported to this world, although he already had some experience with the last one thanks to Zelretch.

He approached the intersection leading to the marketplace, beyond that was the large clearing where the Silverleaf Tree. The people at the marketplace weren't faring much better in coping, adventure of all kinds of races; humans, dwarves, elves, half-alvs, werecats, and more. Unlike the streets he just passed through things were more chaotic here. People screaming at each other, adventurers threatening the natives and open fight that had to be broken by the royal guard.

As he pushed his way through the masses of adventurers in the marketplace he could see the top of the Silverleaf Tree sticking out like a sore thumb above some of the tops of the smaller buildings. The tree was one of the major landmarks in the city besides the cathedral and the guild building. It grew on one of the largest clearings of the city and when Elder Tales was still a game it had been the site of many of the city related events and festivals. Now the place was currently deserted, a tumbleweed completed the scene. The runed stone now turned into dust after completing it's job.

' _Huh, note to self time to experiment the after-effects of using runecraft to avoid being turned into dust.'_ He mentally thought. _'Well, looks like I'm the first one to arrive might as well upgrade my arrows with my runecraft and experiment my runes while waiting for Naotsugu and Shiroe.'_

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

A tree stump a few meters tall was there—just as he had guessed. He went around that stump and made a turn at the two-story building. It was right where he remembered it.

Right before his eyes were apocalyptic ruins. The asphalt, once ubiquitous, appeared infrequently here and there. He dashed through the ruins. The buildings stood in close succession, coiled and sometimes pierced by giant, ancient trees.

Now he was running past scenery that he had never seen before, yet feels familiar to him.

There were silhouettes of people curled up in the streets. These were likely Adventurers in the situation as him. Their screams made him continue suppressing his fear, although he is barely putting a show.

' _I can move my limbs as I like, although it's uncomfortable because my limbs seem to be a little bit longer thankfully not by much.'_ He thought to himself.

What spread before his eyes was the city of Akiba. This was the hometown of many players, the largest city of the Japanese server of Elder Tales. Every people that he had seen were dressed as a citizen of the Middle-Ages of a fantasy world.

"Akiba? Ridiculous! Have I gone nuts?! Someone, answer me! _"_ A player like him nearby shouted.

That was normal since the Elder Tales is the world he is in. Elder Tales was the world's largest class of MMORPG with a theme based on a world of swords and magic. But it was still a game.

The air was different from the dry and somewhat prickly air in Tokyo where Shiroe lived. The wind, twisted with the smell of greenery, told him that this place wasn't the world he was familiar with.

He shook his head and thought back.

He was playing Elder Tales.

He remembered facing his desk at home and enjoying the game displayed on his LCD monitor.

Elder Tales was actually a long-running title, boasting a 20-year history. Of course, its contents and game engine were replaced with the latest version by frequent software updates, but its abundance of data and deep game traditions accumulated from its long operation were what won the popularity of its users.

Today should have been the day to commemorate the release of the 12th expansion pack of Elder Tales. The data he had downloaded beforehand would be lifted of its restricted status and would bring about new items, new zones, new monsters and battles; and, above all else, raise the level cap of the world of Elder Tales.

Today was also the very day the expansion pack was brought live, so there should be a great number of players connected to the game world. Shiroe didn't have a sound way of investigating that, but the fact that many of his friends were connected was confirmed from his Friend List.

He was a veteran player in Elder Tales.

He started this game when he was in middle school, and had been playing it for 8 years.

There were over 100,000 players in Japan alone. The number of fans worldwide exceeded 20,000,000. The massive online game had mesmerized Shiroe for a long time.

He had, of course, been looking forward to this expansion pack; however, he felt awkward about frolicking about it like a newbie, so he decided to pass time as usual. He'd been practicing hunting at a beginner area, tutoring a pair of twins with some general advice and explaining the usage of items.

But there his memory was abruptly cut.

A rhythmic sound like that of a xylophone being played rang in his ears.

This familiar chime was an alert notifying him of an incoming telepathic call.

He concentrated on his forehead in a way like he was squinting his eyes and selected a menu that appeared in his mind. After being sent flying to this game world and letting go of the panic he felt at first, Shiroe had quickly picked up these controls.

"You here yet, Shiro?" Naotsugu questioned.

"I'm almost there!" He answered. "Is Emiya there yet?"

"Emiya? Oh, he is here tinkering with his arrows." Naotsugu answered. "He was the first one to arrive here."

He listened to the voice of his dear old friend as he made another right turn at an abandoned building on the verge of collapse.

The clear sound of him cutting through the top of the trees and a humid smell were carried by the gentle breeze. And then there was the dazzling light.

This brightness was something one couldn't experience unless one witnessed it in early summer. Under the cool winds, instead of bringing heat, the sun rays simply burst with white radiance. A pure, overwhelming intensity of light.

The city was illuminated by the light of early summer. The ancient giant trees and buildings cast deep black shadows on the main streets covered in black soil and asphalt. The contrast was beautiful.

The scene that was spreading out before his eyes was something he had seen countless, countless times: the hometown of the game world, the city of Akiba.

However, that scene had an overwhelming sense of realism that was impossible for a game and it was enveloping him completely.

He was sprinting in this scenery with his very own legs.

Every step he took, he felt the slipperiness of wet moss crushed by his sole. He felt his heart strongly pumping his blood to every nook and cranny of his body, which was heating up from the exercise.

This was something he couldn't doubt; this was reality.

The city was, indeed as he remembered it, the city of Akiba.

The crumbling ruins, the repeatedly extending Barrack bars, and the old trees spreading their roots on the roads were all swallowed by a green forest even as they coexisted. This was the game setting of the holy ground of the ancients. This was Akiba.

Within the League of Freedom Towns Eastal, east of Arching Archipelago Yamato, Akiba was the hometown of the players and the core city of the Japanese server in Elder Tales.

He ran through the center of the street and made a turn at a corner of a three-story inn-and-bar.

The crumbling ruins were buildings made of concrete: Suftek, Yashikayama Electronics, Kulta Tower, etc. Various buildings and famous places gave the impression of the real world's Akihabara, and they were reconstructed as ruins of an older era in Elder Tales.

The legacies of the old era were sleeping here and there in this world. They could be giant underground ruins or towers that pierced the skies. This city of Akiba was a legacy itself.

As if clinging on, buildings made of logs were extending the giant concrete structures that were on the verge of becoming rubble, and all of that was embraced within the bosom of the ancient trees. The scenery was miraculous.

After he arrived, Naotsugu, who was sitting on concrete debris and watching Emiya's work, stood up and received him. Emiya was tinkering with his arrows in the ground, also stood up and received him after seeing him.

Naotsugu looked pale, but he still laughed heartily and slapped his sheath.

He was a bit more than 1.8m tall, wearing dull but remarkably strong steel armor over his sturdy body. Naotsugu had a shield on his back and looked like an ancient heroic warrior in his get-up.

Emiya had a neutral look, but he still smiled.

He was almost 2m tall, wearing black leather armor with a blue coat over his well-built body. Emiya had a bow and arrow in his back and two Chinese swords that made him look like an ancient archer.

"Hi, Shiroe!" Naotsugu greeted loudly.

"Good Morning Shiroe." Emiya said neutrally.

"Naotsugu, Emiya, eh… good morning too." He greeted coldly. He didn't know how to react so he fell back on his cold greeting.

Elder Tales had a standard voice chat system; players were able to communicate while playing the game by using speakers and a microphone, like chatting on the phone. Some players didn't like to use voice chat and insisted on text messages, but he and Naotsugu were not like that.

That was why he remembered and was very familiar with Naotsugu's voice. He also remembered Emiya's voice due to them meeting each other a few times in Tokyo.

Naotsugu Hasegawa.

If anyone asked him who is the most reliable person in the game was, he would be among the first few choices that came to mind.

Shirou Emiya

If anyone asked him who the most polite but reliable person outside and inside the game was, he would be among the first few choices that came to mind.

Online gaming referred to playing a game through the Internet. Elder Tales was a 'Massively Multiplayer Online' or 'Massively Multiuser Online' game. Several hundreds or thousands of players would be connected to the same game space to play this game. In other words, this type of game allowed players to know many other players, working or competing with each other.

Shiroe had played Elder Tales for many years, so he knew quite a lot of people in the game. But the people you knew in the game remained in the game. Different people might have different playing styles and opinions, but most people would not reveal their real identity in the game world.

With the increase in online crimes after the year 2000, protecting your personal data was common sense for the online community.

But that didn't mean you couldn't make real friends.

Naotsugu knew his real name... meaning Shiroe gave him his contact details and was one of the few players that had met with him offline as well.

Emiya also knew his real name and had met him offline in Tokyo, apparently he was the owner of a 5-star restaurant in Fuyuki City or now known as Kobe City.

The three of them even gathered on one place in the real world.

He let out a sigh of relief when he heard both of their voices.

They might have met in person before, but they had spent much more time conversing through the game screen. The two of them spent countless nights with him in the Debauchery Tea Party, visiting countless border zones, experiencing countless battles together. They were one of the players in Elder Tales whom he was great friends with.

They had chatted about so many things under the skies.

They even discussed their boring feelings; Emiya even gave them advice about on how to court a girl. Naotsugu and Emiya were completely unlike a friend he only met in a game.

For him, this cheerful and reliable voice was the symbol of Naotsugu while the serious and reliable voice was the symbol of Emiya.

"What's this situation? Did Elder Tales evolve to this level while I wasn't playing? To be honest, this is too real for me - this isn't possible with just improving the level of particle effects and rendering machines right? Is this a joke?" Naotsugu pouted as he asked the two of them. His cheerful and chatty voice sounded a bit depressed.

"This isn't a joke looks like something happened to us while playing the game." Emiya stated in his usual serious tone.

"This is nerve wrecking." Naotsugu said.

Shiroe vaguely nodded and raised the magic staff in his hand. _'Come on, this is a magic staff, magic staff.'_ He thought.

This was a commonly seen item in fantasy games and was just up to his shoulder in height. It was made by grinding and bending a long and slender tree branch and reinforcing it with metal... just like a magic staff used by mages.

The only place you could find this was in a role-playing store.

The two probably noticed Shiroe's silent reproach.

Naotsugu bent his head to check himself out. He was wearing steel armor that seemed to weigh dozens of kilograms, with a shield on his back and a sword with an elegant hilt on his waist. Naotsugu looked like a warrior in a fantasy setting.

Emiya only watched the two of them. He was wearing leather armor and a mantle over the armor. He had a bow on his back and two swords on a hilt on his waist.

"Eh, I look like a role player myself." Naotsugu said after surveying himself.

"That's right." He confirmed what his friend said.

Emiya only nodded.

Even though they were not sounds of joy, the three of them looked at each other and laughed.

"Now that you mention, the both of you... look the same." Naotsugu said with a smile.

"You too." He and Emiya spoke at the same time.

The three of them observed each other's appearance.

Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Emiya were basically game characters in Elder Tales. The characters in the game were originally constructed using 3D models, a far cry from the real world. But the two of them existed for real in this world, in which everything was as detailed as reality.

Since it was a monthly subscription game, there were very few players who intentionally chose ugly appearances. To meet the demand of the players, the market would use beautiful 3D models.

But Naotsugu was not just turning his stylish character in Elder Tales into reality. He had seen them both in real life several times, and they looked exactly like he remembered.

"Naotsugu, your face looks very similar to your real face, doesn't it?" He inquired to Naotsugu.

"Now you have said it, he does look like his real face." Emiya seconded.

"And Emiya, your face is also very similar to your real face minus the wrinkles in your face." He said.

Naotsugu only nodded to his observation.

With the scar that ran through the brow of his game character gone, Naotsugu's face revealed his own bright eyes with slightly drooping corners. His adult face had a boyish grin on his lips.

Without the wrinkles that made him look like an old man, Emiya now look like a young man.

"You too, Shiro, a scholarly man with glasses and wicked beady eyes." Naotsugu said.

"He really completes the image of a scholar that is plotting something in the shadows. Am I right Naotsugu?" Shirou added his honest assessment.

"Now that you said it he does look like one." Naotsugu said with a nod.

There were friends who described him this way, and his features seemed to be reflected on this body. As he thought about this, he gave the standard answer he used countless times: "Can you just ignore that?"

"What is the current situation? Tell me if you know anything, 'Black Heart Glasses'." Naotsugu started.

"I personally want to tell you, but I don't know anything." He replied. "What about you Emiya?"

While Emiya was just silent, clearly thinking what to say. "Although I have some theories but I'm clueless just like you."

He and Naotsugu kicked away the shattered debris and sat down while Emiya just turned back to his work. Shiroe didn't have any information to explain the current situation.

Compared to the suburban area Shiroe woke up in, this was closer to the center of Akiba. If you listened carefully, you could hear the buzz of the city from here.

"Firstly, this is not a dream." Naotsugu's inquired.

"Yeah." Shiroe and Emiya both nodded and agreed to Naotsugu's inquiry.

When he regained conscious, he was in a familiar place... that didn't exist in the real world, which seemed like the game he was playing. Elder Tales was a fantasy game with the world of sword and sorcery as its backdrop. Players could create their characters, Adventurers, and travel through the world from their characters' view.

The body that Shiroe was controlling like his own was a character he controlled in the game, 'Shiroe'. But the appearance of this character seemed to reflect the real face of Shiroe.

"Have you both seen the status screen?"

"Yes, we have." Naotsugu answered while Emiya only nodded in agreement.

Since Elder Tales was a game, the strength, stamina and all sorts of abilities were represented in the form of numbers. All sorts of commands in the game were input through the menu.

There were no such game-related screens anywhere you looked in this world. If you focused on your forehead region, the world would present a translucent status screen displaying all sorts of values and graphs. By controlling the cursor with your mind, you could perform all sorts of action. All of them realized this about half an hour after waking up.

They also discovered the telepathy function. This was a function to contact your friends that were online in the game. In the Elder Tales world, this function was similar to a cell phone, allowing players to contact their friends from far away.

However, they could only contact people registered on their friend list.

Focusing on his forehead and browsing his friend list desperately with rusty controls, Shiroe had been shocked and he shouted when he discovered that both Naotsugu and Emiya were online.

Naotsugu was surprised when Shiroe contacted him through telepathy, but he quickly agreed to meet up at the ruins nearby.

Emiya was also surprised when he was contacted by Shiroe, but he agreed to meet up at the ruins.

"…"  
"..."

"..."

The silence hung between them as all of them thought about what to say, although Emiya's silence was due to him working something on his arrows. But the answer was obvious all of them, Shiroe had a better grasp of the situation than Naotsugu and Emiya. While Emiya had some theories compared to Shiroe and Naotsugu. From what Shiroe knew, Naotsugu hadn't logged into Elder Tales in the past two years and Emiya also hadn't logged in for a year.

Shiroe told them everything he knew.

Emiya told them his theories which in his opinion are plausible.

He had even heard Emiya grumbling about a certain troll and the universe screwing up with him.

' _Might as well shelve that particular information, maybe it will be useful later.'_ He thought.

Everything he knew and Emiya's theories weren't much.

If it were about things that happened during the two years when Naotsugu and the year Emiya wasn't around, they could have talked all day. But Shiroe had no clue regarding the reason and background as to why they were involved in this perplexing event.

What he could confirm was that he installed the expansion pack 'Novasphere Pioneers' and was playing with beginners just outside of the city when the incident happened. The place looked the same as the starting point of Elder Tales, Akiba, and they seemed to be in the game world. They had the same bodies as their characters and retained all the items and equipment they had in the game.

' _Now that I think about it, how are the twins doing? I need to check on them later.'_ He thought.

But Shiroe didn't know why this was happening.

As Shiroe narrated, both Naotsugu and Emiya listened carefully. When unfamiliar terms popped up they would ask about them, but they didn't interject with their own opinions.

Shiroe didn't like noise. He was fine with lively and festive atmospheres, but he disliked chaotic hustle and bustle. Naotsugu was cheerful and mischievous while Emiya was a busybody, but they were smart enough to listen to others.

Their characters differed but they complement each other greatly, maybe they all had the generosity to compromise with each other.

"I see, eh, alternate world... an alternate world has sucked us in, fantasy has become reality..." Naotsugu sighed in acceptance.

Once again Emiya grumbled to himself about being totally used to it.

' _Used to what Emiya?'_ He thought suspecting Emiya was hiding something but he didn't question him since he still respected him as a friend.

"So Naotsugu and Emiya, why are you here? Making a comeback?"

Naotsugu replied: "Yeah, I heard about the new expansion pack, and things at work were calming down so I logged in to take a look..."

"Nah just playing the game since I have just finished my last will and so as not to worry my kids and grandkids" Emiya replied truthfully.

'So Naotsugu and Emiya were coming back. So the both of them were planning on coming back...' He thought. 'Wait… Emiya had kids and grandkids…. So how old was Emiya again.' He thought while he brought up Emiya's age in mind which was blank.

"Hold it Emiya. So you have kids and grandkids?" Naotsugu questioned saying one of the questions in Shiroe's mind.

"Yep" Emiya answered.

"So how old are you really?" He questioned Emiya.

"My age? I'm currently 73 years old." Emiya answered innocently.

He only sweatdropped while Naotsugu just blanked out; he could actually imagine steam coming out of his friends ears.

He recalled that Naotsugu was 2 years his senior. So that means Emiya is 50 years older than him.

"How come you haven't told us about your real age?" He inquired.

"Hmm how come I haven't? It's either you haven't questioned about my age or you have already guessed my age, maybe both." Emiya answered with a smirk.

Shiroe only rubbed his head after remembering he forgot questioning Emiya's age.

"Wait! So you are now 73, then why do you look like a man that is still in the prime of his life?" Naotsugu questioned Emiya after his mind have rebooted from the shock

"Well that's a secret I need to keep." Emiya answered Naotsugu's question.

"I wish I would look like you do when I'm old." Naotsugu said with a sigh.

While he and Emiya only laughed at Naotsugu's ridiculous wish.

Shiroe met Naotsugu 4 years ago while he met Emiya 3 years ago. Shiroe was already a veteran player in Elder Tales then. It was normal for a middle school student to play with computers in that era, but Shiroe was one of the few homely types. Put simply, even if he went out, his heart was still at home... he was a kid who was lonely even in a crowd.

Even after moving on to high school and college, he maintained this form of entertainment, touring the virtual world every day.

Elder Tales already had a special place among online games back then. If you wanted to play a challenging game with incredible content, it had to be Elder Tales; this was the view of the game amongst the players.

For instance, Elder Tales had a grand vision, the 'Half-Gaia project'. It might sound ridiculous, but the goal of the project was to recreate Earth at half its scale.

The starting city for Japanese server was Akiba, corresponding to Tokyo in the Japan archipelago. North American servers had the 'Big Apple' and 'South Angel' as starting cities. Japanese and American servers were just convenient names to refer to. The online world was made up of many different servers connected to each other, so it was theoretically possible to head for other continents or even the end of the world. Hence, one of the selling points of Elder Tales was the ability of players to travel to other servers, something normal MMOs could not emulate.

The Half-Gaia project was a long term goal; the current game was not a perfect rendition of the real world.

In Elder Tales, the world was divided into many zones, each with its own territory and boundaries.

The vast sea of trees in Mount Fuji was a zone where ferocious monsters lurked, the dungeon Shinshuku Metro Complex was a stage for adventure, and the city of Akiba was a non-combat zone.

Going deeper, a room in a hotel was also a small zone. Some zones could be traded. If you accumulated enough in-game coins, you could be a land- or home-owner.

All zones were connected in their own ways. Open plains, for example, didn't have boundary demarcations, so players weren't able to tell which zone they were actually in. When they moved across zones, they wouldn't even notice.

Some zones had obvious demarcations, like some buildings and rooms, which were individual zones connected elsewhere through a door.

From what Shiroe knew, the Japanese server managed tens of thousands of zones.

With such a scale, the developing company had to outsource to other major gaming companies, and knowledgeable veteran players like Shiroe were convenient reliable existences.

Shiroe had been invited by many guilds during his long tenure in the game, and had joined a guild temporarily, thinking of it as a trial.

Guilds were the most common way for players to form a group in Elder Tales.

After entering a guild, players could access the guild account in the bank and use the guild warehouse to manage their equipment easily as well as other convenient services. The guild members kept in touch with each other so it was easy to form raid parties.

So most players in Elder Tales joined a guild since it was convenient and had many benefits.

Since he liked to research the game contents and even got news from foreign servers, his knowledge was better than that of other veteran players who had played as long as he had. From this perspective, Shiroe was someone who could contribute greatly to whichever guild he chose to join.

No player could grasp the details of all the zones perfectly; he was also not a genius of that level. But things like main routes, the connections between zones, or the transport devices known as Fairy Rings could shorten your transportation time greatly. What you could buy at which zone or where you could hunt for a specific monster, this knowledge needed to be accumulated slowly over time.

Countless zones, endless varieties of items and monsters, missions known as quests, all kinds of ancient lore and knowledge... and anything else the developers could think of. The culmination of all these was Elder Tales.

But he could not get used to relationships that included elements of convenience and benefit. He had mellowed out now, but the Shiroe back then was much more stubborn and naive... and an embarrassing neat freak.

Even if he didn't make many requests of others, he didn't know how to decline others.

He didn't reject them, but his feelings didn't accept them either.

There were all sorts of people in the game world. As long as there were people, there would be both pure and impure relationships. For the middle-school Shiroe, this might have been too shocking.

Shiroe noticed that he was being used like a walking encyclopedia. Along with his high-level character, he was dragged around like an all-purpose tool to fight for the convenience of others.

Shiroe couldn't adjust to this type of relationship or reject it tactfully, so he chose to leave the guild and mingle with others in temporary raid parties by himself.

Before Shiroe realized it, he had become a famous solo player with both deep knowledge and a high-level character. As his fame grew, he fell deeper into solitude.

Naotsugu met him when Shiroe was starting to get stronger and travel alone, having given up on guilds. Shiroe was starting to grow numb to the feeling of solitude.

Emiya was also like him, a player who gave up on guilds, apparently he was famous for soloing a mid-level dungeon and was a famous Blacksmith in Akiba. He was deadly in pvp fights apparently killing a raid team of 24 player killers. He met Emiya after the guy was finished in raiding a dungeon by himself again just to get materials to forge.

The three of them met in the Debauchery Tea Party.

The Debauchery Tea Party was not a guild. It was just the Debauchery Tea Party. There was no other way to describe it. It was just a group of players who 'just' happened to congregate there.

Even though they 'just' happened to be there, but they were 'always' there and 'ready' to go.

... that was the place Shiroe belonged to.

The guilds they joined were different.

Their characters were not the same.

They had nothing in common.

They just gathered in the ruined building. Sometimes in the plains, other times on the hills where you could see the stars.

This group went on adventures.

Elder Tales was a sword- and sorcery-style fantasy world, set thousands of years into the future. This was the setting the players bought into.

According to the legend of Elder Tales, there had been a massive war on earth, shattering the old world, which was miraculously reconstructed by the gods into this one.

This was a common mythical setting seen in fantasy games.

Common mythical monsters like orcs, goblins, trolls, giants, chimeras, and hydras roamed the lands.

Most players found joy in battling. Gaining EXP and leveling up after defeating monsters, looting powerful and rare treasures; this was the common way to play Elder Tales.

But this was just grinding and farming, not real adventuring. Fighting repeatedly and adventuring were different things, Shiroe discovered that for the first time in the Debauchery Tea Party. And he could always see 'her' in the Debauchery Tea Party, as well as companions who were helping 'her'. Shiroe was also a companion there.

The people he met in the Debauchery Tea Party might be the first friends he met in Elder Tales. Naotsugu and Emiya were one of them.

"You think we can get home?" Naotsugu questioned him.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully.

"Before we think on getting home, we should first answer the question on how did we get here, in the first place." Emiya pointed out.

"Yeah" He and Naotsugu agreed.

"I know… We may not be able to return quickly." He started. "Which means.." He paused while pushing his glasses nearer to his eyes. "We should be ready."

"What do we do?" Naotsugu inquired while Emiya was listening silently.

"Let's gather information." He paused and continued. "We have to know more about this world."

"That's true." Naotsugu and Emiya both said. Both of them were now standing, sensing the end of the conversation is near.

"Good to see you as calm and analytical as ever." Naotsugu said to him.

"I'm glad to see that you still haven't change." Emiya said with a smile.

"We're counting on you, Strategist." Naotsugu said while picking up both his sword and shield from the ground.

Emiya just picked his things off the ground.

After the two picked up their things, they started to walk.

"Calm isn't the word I'd choose." He murmured. "I know this isn't what you two expected but welcome back to Elder tale." He continued while the three bumped fists.

They chatted until they soon arrived at the city gates.

"So want to take a look outside?" Naotsugu noted cautiously. He wasn't the only one, people sitting around the square in front of the gate were in different opinions about going outside.

"I'm sure monsters are out there!"

"No way."

"You go check it out."

"Hell no… you go!"

It was a complete mess. No one could agree on a course of action and in the end they would do nothing, only argue more.

"No not yet. There are some things we need to do first." He answered. "So Emiya since you are back it means your personal situation has been sorted out right?" He turned to look at the archer, only to find him gone. "Eh? Where did he go?"

"Are you looking for Emiya?" Naotsugu questioned. "He just went to buy something." While pointing at the path Emiya had taken.

 **-(Akatsuki's POV)-**

On the highest floor of one of the buildings that dotted the city a purple clothed assassin watched the streets. He just needed a moment alone with Shiroe, but so far the opportunity hadn't shown itself. He had been tailing them for awhile now and found that they had never left the crowded areas of the city. However now looked like a good moment to strike, the two of them were walking on an empty road, he just needed their attention.

' _Wait. Two of them? Where did the tanned man go?'_ He thought.

"You know you were tailing us for a long time?" A voice whispered from his side. "So would you mind telling me why you were following us?"

He followed the origin of the voice and saw Shiroe's tanned friend dressed in red and black standing at his left arms crossed with a shinai that is emitting bloodlust, watching the scenery outside.

' _How did he find him? His Shadow Walker ability should have prevented people from seeing him as long as he stayed in the shadows.' He thought while trying to make some distance and finding out that he can't move an inch. 'Wait. Why can't I move?'_

Seeing his confused face the tanned man answered. "Shadow Walker hides the casters body in shadows, but it doesn't stop a trained marksman to notice the abnormality of the shadows especially the light that is reflecting from your forehead. Your forehead protector gave you away." The man explained while poking his forehead protector.

"Now that we got that away, I believe introductions are in order." The man continued. "I'm Emiya a Level 90 Assassin and Blacksmith." He gave a formal bow. "Now would you mind telling me yours?"

He hesitated for a moment, he really didn't want more people than necessary to find out about his predicament, but if this man could possibly help him meet Shiroe this would make the matter to end faster.

With that in mind he tried pulling down the cloth covering his mouth. _'Huh. I forgot that I can't move.'_ He mentally sighed.

Seeing his lack of answer the man now named as Emiya, clearly forgot that he can't move, thought for a second and remembered his predicament. "Ahh, I'm sorry about that. I forgot that you cannot move." He apologized before walking near his shadow that had a thin sword stabbed in it. "I totally forgot that I stabbed your shadow with a Black Key." He then proceeded in taking the sword out of his shadow and walked back to his previous location.

He pulled down the cloth covering his mouth and said. "Akatsuki. That's my name."

"Wait, a second. So you're a girl?" Emiya gaped shamelessly clearly surprised. "So let me get this straight, you're character was a guy and you are now stuck like that." Emiya sighed, clearly looked like he wanted to bang his head to a wall. "So did everything change?"

She looked at Emiya in confusion.

"Nevermind that." Emiya conceded "So can you tell me the reason for following us?" Emiya questioned.

"I know Shiroe has an Appearance Reset Potion and I want to buy it from him." She answered.

"Then why not simply ask him or just use the voice chat?" Emiya questioned.

"Voice Chat still works?" She innocently questioned him.

"Yes, just think of the menu and in front of you and it should open." Emiya said with a sigh.

She gave it a try.

 **-(Shirou's POV)-**

Judging from her movements, she is giving it a try.

While Akatsuki was busy fiddling with the menu, he looked at the streets below them; Naotsugu and Shiroe were still walking down the road. He opened his menu, scrolled down his friends list and called Shiroe.

"Emiya, where did you suddenly go?" Shiroe questioned him.

"I found someone who is head over heels for you." He said with a grin and heard his friend choking. "Just joking. I found someone who wants to talk to you. Look to the building to your right."

Down below Shiroe started to look around and noticed him waving at the top floor of the building.

"Meet me at the ground floor." He told them before ending the call.

He turned back at the ninja. "We should get down, Shiroe is comingto meet us on the ground floor."

She nodded and the both of them walked downstairs.

While they walked he noticed that Akatsuki more or less stumbled.

"Is everything alright?" He questioned to the girl.

"My Character is taller than I am in real life, so moving is difficult." The girl answered.

The two of them arrived at the ground floor before Shiroe and Naotsugu arrived. She leaned against an old desk in the room while he just leaned against the wall with his left hand holding the Torashinai and his right holding a Black Key. He surveyed their surroundings and thought what would happen to the girl if Shiroe didn't have the potion she needs.

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

"Emiya, I thought you were buying something not chasing some stranger. At least tell us when you're going chase after people." Naotsugu complained as they walked in the room.

Emiya just ignored his friend's complaint.

"Akatsuki?" He exclaimed, clearly surprised at the ninja's presence in the room.

"You know him?" Naotsugu questioned him.

"We've been in a party before; he's a quiet guy but a good assassin." He answered.

"Well. Any friend of Shiroe is a friend of mine. Doesn't matter if they are open or closet perverts." Naotsugu gave the assassin a thumb up and a big smile, but she ignored him.

"Do you say that to everyone you meet?" He asked.

"Yup" Naotsugu answered with a grin.

He and Emiya just sighed at their friend's antics.

Akatsuki glanced at them before speaking. "Shiroe, I've been looking for you. I want you to sell me an Appearance Reset Potion."

"That voice….." Naotsugu noticed.

"Akatsuki, you're a girl? So that's why you never spoke that much." He was just as surprised as Emiya had been a few minutes ago. Nevertheless he searched for the potion in his bag. When he found it he passed it to Akatsuki, who eagerly took it from him and stumbled back to the cover of an old fashioned wooded board were people used to change themselves behind.

"Appearance Reset Potions. Those potions are quite rare. They only distribute them once." Naotsugu mused.

"I remembered Shiroe had one." Akatsuki confessed. They heard her gulping down the strange looking liquid.

Naotsugu took this chance to try and take a peek. But was stopped by Emiya stabbing a black sword to Naotsugu's shadow stopping him in his tracks.

"Oh no you don't. No peeking." Emiya said ominously while holding a shinai in front of Naotsugu's face.

"Let me go!" Naotsugu whined. But his whining was stopped after seeing Emiya holding an ominous shinai. "Emiya where did you get that sword you are holding?"

"Ohh this shinai? I forged this and have been in my inventory for a long time." Emiya answered with a smile. "This shinai gives the fear negative buff to everyone near the wielder and you can attack anyone without fearing of attracting the city guards since it has 0 damage. You know this tool is the perfect intimidating/torture tool."

"So Emiya what is that sword stabbed in Naotsugu's shadow?" He questioned Emiya.

"Ahh, that. It's a magic sword that has a paralysing effect if you stab it in someone's shadow." Emiya answered nonchalantly.

"Ok. Akatsuki I thought you didn't use the voice chat because you were playing as an assassin." He said to Akatsuki and blissfully ignored where Emiya got those weapons/torture tools.

He never got an answer. As soon as he finished his sentence a blinding light came from behind the wooden cover followed by the sound of bones reshaping.

"Are you okay?" He asked the assassin.

Shiroe received an answer when she started screaming. All three of them cringed at the sounds and Naotsugu stopped struggling while Emiya stopped threatening Naotsugu with the ominous shinai.

"You know guys; I was planning on changing my current look to a younger look. But on second thought, I am now content with my current appearance." Emiya stated.

He and Naotsugu only deadpanned at Emiya's statement.

"What?!" Emiya questioned the two of them after seeing the look on their faces. "You can't blame an old man like me wanting an even more youthful look." Emiya reasoned to them.

A few seconds later the light receded, and with it did the snapping sounds and screaming stopped.

"It's alright now." Akatsuki called out while walking in front of them. The changes had been extensive. What had a few moments ago been a tall, well built, purple haired assassin, had changed into a petite, slender girl wearing oversized cloths. The only things that stayed the same was her hair, although it is now longer, and her eyes.

"Wow she's hot. She's the real deal." Naotsugu mumbled at his side.

"She's not hot. She's just cute like my Grandkids." Emiya argued.

Akatsuki didn't seem to hear them, or if she did chose to ignore them. "You saved me. I really appreciate it."

"It's fine." He stuttered. It was followed by a chuckle from Naotsugu and Emiya.

By the time Akatsuki found some fitting clothes, night has fallen. The four of them were gathered on the rooftop of one of the ancient buildings. Akatsuki was stretching her new body, Emiya was sitting on the floor tinkering with his equipment, Naotsugu was sitting on rubble, and he was fiddling with the menu.

"I retract my earlier statement." Naotsugu began. "You can't be an open or closet pervert, because…" He paused for dramatic effect. "You aren't a man!" Naotsugu finally said while making a fist.

However no one reacted to it.

"Shiroe-dono, is there something wrong with him?" Akatsuki asked him. She wasn't even bothering to stop her stretching.

"There are many things wrong with him." He replied in an even, bland voice. He might just have discussed the weather.

"Why is that?" Naotsugu cried indignantly.

"You know I can the list the reasons but the list goes on and on." Emiya stated like it is a foregone conclusion.

"No one asked for your opinion, old man." Naotsugu fired back.

"In any case he's messed up." Akatsuki noted.

"More than you imagined." Emiya said.

"So," He started. "Akatsuki did you adjust your character to be closer to your real size?" He finally asked.

"Yes" Akatsuki replied.

Naotsugu seemed to calm down. "You should have done that in the first place." He said.

"Games are fun since you can do things you can't do in real life." Akatsuki explained. "But once I was stuck here, it was very inconvenient."

"Inconvenient?" Naotsugu wondered for a moment. "Ah! You mean like going to the bathroom."

The answer was instantaneous. Akatsuki moved with a speed befitting of an assassin class and kneed the bigger man right in the face. Who fell down the rubble he had been sitting on with a thud.

"Shiroe, is it all right if I knee this strange man in the face?" Akatsuki asked afterward.

Naotsugu, who recovered surprisingly fast, walked up behind her while holding his nose said. "Ask before you do it, shrimp."

"Don't call me shrimp." Akatsuki fired back.

It wasn't working. He sighed in hopelessness and Emiya just laughed at their antics.

 **-(Shirou's POV)-**

Before long Akatsuki turned her attention back to Shiroe.

"Anyway, how much do I owe you?" Akatsuki questioned Shiroe.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Shiroe casually dismissed her question.

"I can't do that." Akatsuki declared. "I wouldn't want anyone saying I wouldn't repay a favour."

"But…" Shiroe clearly tried to make an excuse but was cut off by Naotsugu.

"It it's a big deal you can…" Naotsugu tried to say but was immediately kicked in the face by Akatsuki.

"Shiroe, is it alright if I kick this man in the face?" Akatsuki asked Shiroe.

"I said ask before you do it!" Naotsugu yelled. "And I didn't even finish!"

"You were about to say something bad." Akatsuki accused the guardian.

"I was but…" Naotsugu answered.

"The two of you are very funny." He pointed out with a laugh.

"Anyway you could just stay with us for awhile." He continued. "With the current situation we should stay together. Right, Shiroe?"

"It's true that we can't leave her by herself." Shiroe admitted. "Akatsuki didn't you say that you refused an offer to join a guild?"

"Assassins are lone wolfs." Akatsuki reasoned.

"That's true." He stated. In all his years in playing Elder Tales he hadn't stayed in a guild for a long time due to circumstances. Sure, he had done some mercenary work for guilds and forged swords if a friend of his requested, but never really joined them.

"We aren't in one either." Shiroe told her. "What Emiya had said holds some merit, walking around alone now is a very bad idea."

"Are okay with that?" She asked hopefully.

"We'd be happy to have you." Shiroe answered.

"I see.." Akatsuki paused and thought for a moment. Then she kneeled and hung her head low. "Then as a ninja, I shall revere you as my lord."

"What just happened?" A surprised Naotsugu whispered to him.

"She just pledged her loyalty to Shiroe." He answered in a straight face.

"Ninja? Lord?" Shiroe was stuttering in confusion and wasn't fairing any better than Naotsugu.

"You have saved me from the dire fate of being turned into man." She explained. "Thus, I must work to repay you." She raised her head. "That is what requiting a debt means. From now on as a ninja, I shall protect you."

"Is it just me or is her eyes really sparkling?" He said in surprise.

Naotsugu just nodded.

"Well, um…. Thanks." Shiroe responded lamely.

"Then we're a team!" Naotsugu shouted in happiness.

"Well then if you need some ninja weapons, you can come to me." He said to Akatsuki.

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

 _The Next Day…_

"Aren't more People of the Land around than before?" Naotsugu concluded.

They were currently walking in the market looking at the goods being sold here.

' _The NPCs that inhabit the world of Elder Tale call themselves People of the Land.' He thought. 'And we players are called adventurers.'_

"Want to buy something, guys?" A vendor said to them.

"You mean we can eat these?" Naotsugu questioned the vendor.

After Naotsugu said that, both of their stomachs let out an embarrassing sound.

"No time to waste thinking about it!" Naotsugu concluded.

"I'll take that and that." Emiya said while pointing the food he wanted to buy in a stall.

"I'll take rice dumpings and green tea." Akatsuki also ordered in another stall.

Both of the vendors said. "Sure thing."

Looks like Akatsuki and Emiya were already buying food in the other stalls.

The food they bought was brought to the abandoned building where they met yesterday.

He bought roasted chicken with orange and tomato sauce, chocolate cake and green tea. Naotsugu purchased seafood pizza, mashed potato with bacon, caesar salad and orange juice. Emiya bought a balanced meal. Akatsuki bought Japanese food.

"What is this?" Naotsugu said dejectedly.

"They all taste the same." He concluded.

"Now I know why my family and Fuji-nee praised my cooking…" Emiya also concluded to himself.

"This…" Akatsuki started but was cut off by Naotsugu.

"It tastes like a soggy cracker, without salt." Naotsugu complained.

"All the drinks taste like water." He sighed.

All of them agreed to the statement and were eating their food groggily.

A pop-up window suddenly appeared in his field of vision combined with the sound of a phone ringing, taking him out of his lazy eating.

Sensing his surprise, Naotsugu questioned him. "What's up?"

He then answered. "Someone's calling me."

"Who is it?" Naotsugu questioned him.

He clicked the call and examined the name. After he remembered who it is, he picked the call.

 **-(Shirou's POV)-**

"From Marielle?" Naotsugu inquired to Shiroe.

They were walking to the guild building. Apparently Shiroe was going to meet with someone after he finished the call.

"Yeah, she leads the guild known as the Crescent Moon Alliance" Shiroe informed them.

"You know it's weird how the guild building is nothing but door, though." Naotsugu observe.

"Each Guild Hall is its own zone." Shiroe supplied.

' _Each own zone, huh.'_ He thought _. 'So it's kinda like a Reality Marble that can only accessed by a locked door.'_ He mused to himself.

"Only the weird stuff is still like a game." He said with a sigh.

They were now entering a door. What greeted them was a pink colored room.

"How cute." Akatsuki concluded.

All of them agreed on Akatsuki's assessment.

"Shiroe!" A woman suddenly shouted behind their backs.

"Marie!" Shiroe exclaimed before he was tackled to the ground by the now identified Marielle.

"Hmm, the girl's got power." He concluded while Naotsugu and Akatsuki only nodded in agreement.

"Are you okay? You must be hungry!" Marielle inquired Shiroe while she was rubbing her face on Shiroe. "Eat something….. Not that it has any flavours!"

Everyone in the room except Shiroe and Marie looked stupefied at the scene.

' _For some kind of reason she kind of reminds me of Illya'_ He concluded in his mind. _'Maybe it has to do with her being hyperactive or bubbly.'_

"Calm down, Marie…" Shiroe said in vain.

"What's this?" Marielle suddenly asked after noticing them. Her status screen can now be seen by them.

"Is it just me or ther is smoke coming out of Shiroe's head?" he whispered to Akatsuki.

Akatsuki just dumbly nodded.

Marie, after noticing the movement, looked at Akatsuki. Akatsuki looked fearful of Marie. Marielle then suddenly hugged Akatsuki while simultaneously rubbing her face to the small assassin.

"Do you have a girlfriend now, Shiroe?" Marielle teased Shiroe.

"No!" Shiroe shouted in denial.

"You're so adorable!" Marielle said while rubbing Akatsuki's head like a cat. "Want a lollipop?"

"Guys did Akatsuki just transformed into a doll?" He questioned while pointing at Akatsuki.

"Shiroe, where were you hiding this hot chick?" Naotsugu whispered.

"I haven't been hiding her." Shiroe answered with a sigh.

"Who are you two?" Marielle asked cheerfully surprising the three of us.

'Looks like we are now the targets.' He mused to himself while walking slowly away from Naotsugu. 'It seems like Shiroe understood the danger.' He thought after seeing Shiroe also walking away from Naotsugu.

"Naotsugu! Nice to meet you." Naotsugu answered the girl's question before he was then tackled by Marielle.

"And my name's Emiya." He introduced himself after seeing he wasn't in immediate danger.

"Naotsugu, huh?" Marielle said while rubbing her face. "So you're Emiya." She continued while pointing at me before going back to rubbing her face on Naotsugu.

"Wh-What-" Naotsugu stuttered.

"You're pretty buff!" Marielle started while patting Naotsugu's armor. "You play sports?"

"No, um…" Naotsugu again stuttered. "I mean, this is armor."

"Hey, Shiroe is she always like this?" I asked Shiroe.

Shiroe nodded in agreement.

"What is her problem? She's scaring me." Naotsugu complained.

Then another voice suddenly chastised the harassing girl. "Marie, stop it."

"Another one." I sighed expecting another quirky girl.

"Another one! Hot girls everywhere!" Naotsugu said in surprise.

"Henrietta!" Both Shiroe and I said in surprise.

"Oh, dear." Henrietta sighed at her leader's antics. "I apologize for summoning you here, Shiroe." She paused before she looked at me. "And you too, Emiya."

"Apology accepted." I answered. "So Henrietta you are part of this guild."

Henrietta nodded. "Given what's happening, I'd like to exchange information…." She started before she looked at Akatsuki and her personality flipped. "She's so cute." Henrietta said with stars in her eyes while Akatsuki just sweatdropped.

"It seems the saying birds of the same feather flocks together is true, right Shiroe." He concluded to himself.

"There they go again…" He heard a voice near the entrance said.

"Umm, Do you want to share information?" Shiroe said in a tired voice.

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

"Then what about the Crescent Moon Alliance members." He inquired.

After the mess died down, they turned to business. With me, Naotsugu, Emiya, and Akatsuki were sitting on a couch while Marie was sitting on another couch with Henrietta standing at her right and another Crescent Moon Alliance member named Shouryuu was standing at their back.

"Including myself, nineteen are online." Marie answered in a calm collected voice. "Eighteen are in Akiba."

"Eighteen of nineteen?" he mused.

"I'm told that, along with Akihabara, the other four major cities on the Japan server, Shibuya, Minami, Susukino, and Nakasu are all in the same shape." Shouryuu said before continuing. "And the inter-city transport gates are offline. In other words, teleporting elsewhere is impossible."

"The Akihabara adventurers are all meeting with their guilds, just like we are." Henrietta started. "Some guilds are also looking to recruit."

"At a time like this, the more people on your side, the better." Marielle said to them.

"But even if this isn't our world, we're all very familiar with Elder Tale." Naotsugu reasoned.

"Not necessarily." He pointed out earning surprised looks everyone except Emiya. "You remember the new expansion, right?" He questioned to them. "The Novasphere Pioneers."

After seeing the confused looks on everyone, Emiya then explained to everyone. "What Shiroe means that since the developers added the new expansion, then monsters, items, and quests may all be different."

"In other words, this world may not be the Elder Tale we all know." He then supplied.

"H-Hey, Shiroe…" Marie started in a hesitant tone. "I know you aren't a big fan of guilds." She paused before continuing. "But… Would you like to join ours?"

"Marie?" Henrietta called to her leader.

"Debauchery Tea Party is gone, right?" Marie started. "And right now." She continued.

"I'm sorry, Marie." He cut her off. "But I can't yet." He finally said in a somber tone.

After he said that, their party quickly left the guild.

"That's a great guild master." Naotsugu said cutting off the silence. "It's all she can do to stay under control, but she's still acting so friendly."

"That is a way for some people to cope with the situation." Emiya said to them.

 **-(Henrietta)-**

"Wasn't the Debauchery Tea Party a legendary guild that disbanded?" Shouryuu inquired to them.

"No, no.." Marie chastised her guildmate. "The Tea Party wasn't a guild."

She then explained. "It was a small group that never formed a guild, but managed to complete several large-scale battles called raids. In which Naotsugu is their main tank, Emiya their blacksmith, and Shiroe as their strategist."

"Wait, so you're saying almost everyone in their party was from that legendary group." Shouryuu said in surprise.

She and Marie just smiled at their guildmate's assessment.

 **-(Shirou's POV)-**

"How long will they just sit around there?" Naotsugu questioned.

They were now roaming the city after Shiroe respectfully declined Marie's guild invitation.

"By my estimates, it should be after a week has passed." He supplied his observations.

"Die and you can escape." Naotsugu started. "In stories like this, that's pretty common."

"And sometimes, if you die in the game, you die in real life." Shiroe said.

"But this is not a game anymore." He wistfully said to them.

"When it was just a game, you'd revive at the Cathedral." Akatsuki mused.

"But we can't very well experiment." Naotsugu complained. "But even if you revive, what about your penalty?"

Shiroe suddenly stopped surprising the three of them and was clearly thinking something.

"What's wrong my lord?" Akatsuki questioned.

After he deciphered the look in Shiroe's face, he only sighed and grumbled. "I don't like the look on your face."

"Let's try it." Shiroe answered Akatsuki's question.

 **-(Shiroe's POV)-**

They were now outside the city of Akihabara and night has already fallen.

"The Archive Tower Forests?" Naotsugu inquired to him while they were walking.

"We're level 90." He explained to them. "That's the level cap. Normally low-level monsters would just ignore us. But in this area the monsters will aggro on sight."

"So it's the perfect place to try it, my lord." Akatsuki concluded.

"So that's why you brought us here." Emiya mulled. "So that means I can re-sharpen my archery skills."

"Wait, so you're a real life archer." Naotsugu muttered in surprise.

"I do practice it just to relieve stress or tension." Emiya answered. "Oh! Looks like we can't use the mini-map in the outside zones."

Then 3 monsters suddenly came in front of them ready to attack.

"Briar Weasels" Akatsuki identified the monsters.

They battled the monsters.

 **-(3rd person POV)-**

That night, under the stars of a world that had been fantasy to everyone the day before, the wheels of fate are once more set into motion. And that was their first taste of battle on this new world.

 **Author's Note/Ramblings:**

Here's the second chapter of the story. Now I certainly know how hard it is to make 10k+ chapter and I applaud all those great writers who makes 10k+ chapters.

I'll try to update this story every month, a big emphasis on the word try.

So please be gentle in your criticism.


End file.
